Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Dec. 1, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020

DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska resident and 519 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 515 were residents in: Anchorage (165), Wasilla (157), Palmer (35), Kenai (23), Soldotna (20), Bethel (16), Fairbanks (12), Kodiak (12), Eagle River (8), Utqiaġvik (8), Homer (5), Chugiak (4), Delta Junction (4), Nikiski (4), Sitka (4), Sterling (4), Bethel Census Area (3), Big Lake (3), Craig (3), Nome (3), Juneau (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (2), Kotzebue (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2), and one each in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Girdwood, Haines, Ketchikan, Mat-Su Borough, Nome Census Area, North Pole, North Slope Borough, Skagway, Sutton-Alpine, Tok and Valdez-Cordova Census Area.

Four new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Wasilla: two with purposes under investigation
• Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation
• Seward: one with purpose under investigation

Four resident cases have been removed from the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 31,834 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,257.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 78.29 cases per 100,000. All regions in Alaska except for one are in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 190.03 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 102.43 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 92.74 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 89.99 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 57.58 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 54.42 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 42.27 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 41.93 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 27.59 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 21.44 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 9.32 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 515 Alaska residents, 301 are male and 213 are female and one is unknown. 33 are under the age of 10; 41 are aged 10-19; 105 are aged 20-29; 117 are aged 30-39; 76 are aged 40-49; 64 are aged 50-59; 52 are aged 60-69; 15 are aged 70-79 and 12 are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 734 hospitalizations and 121 deaths, with 24 new hospitalizations and one new death reported yesterday. The individual who died was a female Anchorage resident in her 70s. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones.

There are currently 146 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and nine additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 155 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty-one of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 15.1%.

TESTING – A total of 1,018,628 tests have been conducted, with 22,131 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.09%. 

ANCHORAGE PIONEER HOME UPDATE – Since the last update on Nov. 24, one resident and four staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Anchorage Pioneer Home. One resident has died. Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones. There are currently no hospitalizations. This brings the total number of cases associated with this outbreak since Nov. 3 to 16 residents and 14 staff; total number of deaths is one.

Twice weekly testing of residents and staff will continue at the home until 14 days have passed with no new cases identified.

Notes: Cases reported to the Section of Epidemiology are increasing. Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. Because of the number of reports being received, it may take a day or two after receipt to get a report entered and counted. Extra personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the Hub. Daily case counts seem likely to remain at this level or higher for the near future.

This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 30 that posted at noon today on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub. There is a lag between cases being reported on the DHSS data dashboard and what local communities report. Each case is an individual person even if they are tested multiple times. Total tests are a not a count of unique individuals tested and includes both positive and negative results. The current number of hospitalized patients represents more real-time data compared to the cumulative total hospitalizations. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit: data.coronavirus.alaska.gov.